But what if the economy doesn’t improve any time soon? What if the conditions we are experiencing now are the new conditions for the foreseeable future? What might that suggest about how you should be marketing your business?

At the close of 2007, the U.S. and many other countries began experiencing recessionary conditions. According to the economists, the U.S. recession ended in 2009. But it seems that no one has noticed. And why should they? Unemployment is high, consumer confidence is low, home values have not recovered, and national debt now exceeds GDP in numerous countries, the U.S. included.

If a set of conditions persists for years, at what point do you simply accept them as the way things are? Perhaps that point should be right now. Instead of waiting for an economic recovery to turn your business around, you could begin to turn it around yourself. Here are some thoughts on how to get started.

1. Set sales goals and make a plan to reach them. This sounds simple, but I’m always surprised by how many professionals set a goal without making a plan, make a plan without setting a goal, or neglect both.

Establishing a goal is the only way to know what sort of plan you need. When you don’t declare the level of sales you want to reach, your marketing can stray off track. Spending time online to sell a $29 ebook, for example, instead of pursuing leads for a $10,000 contract, because you keep hearing that “companies aren’t buying.”

When you err in the other direction, and set a goal without building a realistic plan, it’s too easy to be deterred from going after what you want by thoughts like “I’ll work toward that after the economy picks up.” A slower economy indicates you should plan smarter and sooner, not later.

2. Sell got-to-haves instead of nice-to-haves. In lean times, people and organizations spend only to get what they need, rather than on what they want. To make sales, you have to sell what people are buying.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to change what you sell, but you may need to change how you sell it. Get specific about the results you produce or value you provide. Help your prospects see how what you offer can help them earn more, spend less, or overcome their current challenges more readily.

An unemployed manager will hire a coach to improve interview skills when she wouldn’t pay for coaching to build confidence. A downsized company will bring in an expert to increase efficiency when they wouldn’t consider hiring someone to improve job satisfaction. In both these examples, the person being hired ‒ and the work being done ‒ may be exactly the same, but the client believes interview skills or efficiency are needs, while confidence or satisfaction are merely wants.

3. Take action on facts, not on fear. The next time someone tells you “no one is paying for marketing help right now,” ask them how they know that. (A survey released by Doremus last month indicates global corporate spending on marketing was up 10% in 2011, and 29% of companies plan to increase their spending on marketing in 2012.)

Or if you hear that “people don’t have money for alternative medicine these days,” request to know the source for this claim. (A recent Deloitte study shows that U.S. families spent $28 billion on alternative medicine practitioners in 2009, in the middle of the recession.)

If 9% of the workforce is unemployed, then 91% of workers still have jobs. Corporate spending may be lower than before, but that doesn’t mean it’s nonexistent. Do your own research on who is hiring and spending, and take your guidance from data, not doomsayers. Then target the people and organizations who can pay.

4. Eliminate blame from your vocabulary. The state of the economy may indeed be someone else’s fault, but spending time blaming politicians or bankers or real estate speculators can stop you from taking responsibility for your own success. It doesn’t matter to your business who else may be at fault for the way things are. What matters is what you plan to do about the situation at hand.

In Nov 2008, I wrote: In the depths of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt declared in his inaugural speech, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He described that fear as the “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” FDR’s message was that the real danger was not the economic conditions themselves, but the prospect that we would become immobilized by our fear of them.

Is it possible that your own fear of failure or rejection, or blame of conditions you can’t control, or resentment of the people responsible for this mess, has in some ways immobilized you?

It’s time to let all of that go. Take charge of your marketing, find out who is buying, determine what they need, set a clear goal, and make a plan to get there. The sooner you do this, the sooner your own economy will improve.

Copyright © 2012, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was first published in the January 2012 issue of the Get Clients Now! E-Letter, and has not appeared in any print publication. If you would like to reprint it, please contact me for permission.

Are you cut out to be a consultant? Consulting to businesses and organizations can result in higher earnings than working as an employee, provide you with needed income if you are laid off, and allow you to work from home. But success as a consultant isn’t guaranteed. In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how consultants work, the essential elements of starting a consulting practice, and how to land your first clients.

The Ins and Outs of Consulting

Consultants provide their clients with analysis and advice, expert guidance, or an extra pair of hands to fill staffing gaps. Corporations, small businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies hire consultants by the hour, the day, or the project to help them solve problems, complete essential projects, or handle day-to-day responsibilities when a position is vacant.

During an economic downturn, layoffs and downsizing can create new opportunities for consultants. Companies who lay off full-time workers frequently hire consultants on a short-term or project basis to complete urgent tasks or provide missing expertise. If you’ve been laid off yourself, or fear you will be, working as a consultant can allow you to earn a good income in a time when salaried jobs are scarce.

Working as a consultant has many potential benefits. You may be able to earn more per hour than you could as an employee, with more independence, increased flexibility, and less office politics. You can often work mostly from home and have more time with your family. If you’ve lost your job, consulting will help you stay current in your field, provide you with useful contacts, and fill the hole in your resume if you decide to seek another salaried position.

But not everyone has what it takes to be a consultant. You’ll need to be a self-starter, able to work without a boss looking over your shoulder, and manage your time efficiently. You’ll have to learn and employ sales and marketing skills in order to land consulting clients. And you will also need to present yourself as a skilled professional with a defined specialty, as opposed to just someone who needs a job.

Step 1: Defining Your Consulting Niche

The first step to launching your consulting business should be to make an honest assessment of your professional skills and experience. What kind of consulting assignments does your background qualify you for? In what industries do you have the most experience? What type of work do you both enjoy and perform well? If you’re going to be an expert-for-hire, you have to know your stuff.

New consultants often make the mistake of approaching prospective clients as generalists who can work in many different capacities. But clients prefer to hire people who specialize in providing the specific type of help they are looking for.

The most successful consultants have a clearly defined market niche which includes both a professional specialty and a target market. Your professional specialty is the specific area of expertise you plan to offer your clients – technical writing, for example. Your target market is the industry or field you plan to concentrate on – for example, health care. Your market niche is the combination of the two – in this example, technical writing in the health care field.

Defining a market niche enables you to target the kind of clients who most interest you, and allows you to position yourself as an attractive solution to their needs. Without a niche, marketing yourself as a consultant can be quite a challenge. You will find yourself pulled in too many different directions, pursuing unrelated leads and opportunities. And when you speak to a prospective client, it will be much harder to convince them you are the right person for their job.

Step 2: Marketing Your Consulting Practice

Once you have chosen a consulting niche, begin by creating some marketing collateral. You’ll need business cards and a marketing kit, and you may want to consider creating a website.

A typical consultant’s marketing kit includes a professional bio or resume, a description of your services or capabilities, examples of the benefits or results you provide to your clients, and testimonials or endorsements from people familiar with your work. You might also include an article you have written, a fact sheet about your specialty, or a case study of a successful project.

If you are planning to enter the consulting field permanently, you’ll definitely want to create a website. But even if you believe you will only be consulting for a short while, you may wish to build a simple site. Having a description of your expertise available on the web will build your credibility with prospective clients and make you appear more professional.

Consultants typically find most of their clients through three different marketing approaches: 1) contacting prospective clients directly by phone, mail and email, 2) networking in their field or industry, and 3) speaking and writing to establish themselves as experts.

When you’re first getting started, the most productive marketing tactic is usually to network with people you already know. This kind of “warm” marketing will often produce results more quickly than “cold” approaches to organizations where you are unknown.

Reach out to former co-workers, members of your professional association, alumni of your school, and anyone you know in your chosen industry or field. Unless you have a contractual agreement with your former employer not to compete, clients you formerly served as an employee are also fair game. Let your contacts know what your consulting niche is, the type of work you’re seeking, and who would be a good client for you.

Your contacts don’t necessarily need to work for an organization that might hire you. You should also build a network of potential referral sources – people who can refer you to possible clients. To expand this network, participate in the local chapter of your professional association or one or more business networking groups. The more people in your field you can get to know, the more referrals you’re likely to receive.

Step 3: Turning Prospects into Clients

When one of your contacts or referrals shows interest in hiring you, you’ll still need to close the deal. Ask to set up a meeting with the organization’s decision-makers to find out more about their needs, and tell them how you can help. Focus on describing exactly how you can solve their problems or help them achieve their goals, rather than simply presenting your capabilities. This will allow you to demonstrate your consultative skills and encourage them to think of you as an effective problem solver.

Before ending the meeting, ask for a commitment to some sort of next step. If they’re not ready to hire you on the spot, what will help move the process forward? Do they want to see a proposal? Would they like to speak to some references? Can you follow up in a week?

Be prepared to follow up with your prospects multiple times, and don’t get discouraged if time goes by and you don’t hear from them. It sometimes takes weeks or even months to close a deal, but you’ll speed up the process and improve your chances of getting hired if you’re persistent.

The final stage of landing a contract often centers around negotiating your fee. If your prospect balks at the hourly or daily rate you request, consider offering them a package price or reduced scope of work to lower the overall cost, or cap it at a certain amount. The client’s bottom-line concern is usually the total budget for the project, rather than what you are earning per hour.

Step 4: Finalizing a Consulting Agreement

Once your client agrees to hire you, it’s a good business practice to have a written agreement. With a short-term contract for a relatively small amount of money, your agreement might simply be a letter confirming what you have agreed to. With a longer contract or larger sum, your agreement should be more formal and spell out more details.

A simple letter of agreement should include a statement of the work you will perform, the due date if you will be delivering a specific result, the hourly rate or project fee you will be paid, and on what schedule payment from the client is expected.

A more formal contract should include all of the above, plus a termination date, payment terms for travel time or expenses, and conditions under which your fee might increase or the contract might terminate early. It might also include statements about confidentiality, ownership of the work produced, warranty for the quality of the work, and liability for any damages. A contract like this may require the advice of an attorney, especially the first time you produce one.

Sometimes organizations will present you with their standard contract rather than asking you to provide one. In this situation, be sure to review all the terms to make sure they are acceptable before you sign.

Step 5: Beginning a New Assignment

Your success as a consultant will ultimately depend on how well you serve your clients. Doing a good job on a consulting contract will increase your confidence, and lead to repeat assignments and referrals.

When you begin an assignment, take the time to fully understand the client’s needs and establish what will constitute a successful outcome. Most misunderstandings in consulting arise when the client’s expectations aren’t fully understood by the consultant at the outset.

Establish a schedule for the work to be performed that takes into consideration any needed review cycles, turnaround time for project components, and the travel and holiday plans of all participants. Nothing makes a consulting assignment turn sour faster than missing important deadlines.

Step 6: Collaborating or Subcontracting with Others

As your consulting career advances, you may discover possible contracts that are larger than you can handle alone. This can be an opportunity to expand your consulting business.

You may be able to collaborate with one or more colleagues to deliver the contract together. For example, a marketing consultant might bring in a web designer, photographer, and copywriter to produce a website for his or her client.

In some cases, you may wish to have your colleagues contract with the client directly, but you can also hire them as subcontractors. You would hold the contract with the client and receive payment for the entire project, and your colleagues would receive payment from you. Subcontracting arrangements can lead to additional income, as you typically charge your client a higher fee than what you pay your subcontractors.

Tips for Long-Term Success

One of the biggest challenges for most consultants is the “feast-or-famine” cycle. At times you may be so busy you feel overworked, and at other times you may have no work at all. This leads to wide fluctuations in income, and can also be quite anxiety-provoking.

The best way to avoid having to worry where your next job will come from is to keep your marketing pipeline full. Even when you are busy working on a contract, allow some time every week to nurture your network of contacts. Don’t wait until you are unemployed again to get back in touch; by then it will be too late.

Another avenue to ensure long-term success is to establish yourself as an expert in your field through public speaking and writing articles about your specialty. Speaking at professional meetings and conferences will add to your credibility and can often lead directly to consulting offers from people who attend your talks. Publishing articles in trade journals and websites that serve your target audience will build your name recognition and provide compelling new elements for your marketing kit.

Consulting can become a lucrative permanent occupation, or simply serve as a bridge between salaried positions. Consulting contracts sometimes turn into full-time job offers, once an employer gets to know what you can do. The choice is ultimately up to you.

If you enjoy the security of a steady income and the comfort of not having to constantly market yourself, you may wish to leverage your consulting experience back into a full-time job. But if you prefer the freedom, flexibility, and autonomy of running your own business, and the potential for a higher income, then consulting may be the ideal long-term career.

SIDEBAR: Elements of a Successful Consulting Engagement

1. Good fit for your skills. The best assignments are ones where the work closely matches your capabilities. Consultants are expected to arrive with the necessary experience, not to learn on the job.

2. Adequate compensation to do a superior job. It may be tempting to reduce your fee to land a contract, but don’t lower your price so much that you’ll have to skimp on producing results.

3. Generates referrals and repeat business. When you do good work and are paid appropriately, you’ll land more contracts that will lead to the same. If your work is substandard, you won’t get referrals. If you work too cheaply, you’ll get referrals for more low-fee work.

4. Enjoyable work environment. Consulting allows you to choose your clients; don’t feel you have to accept every offer. If you lock yourself into work you don’t enjoy, you won’t be available for more rewarding jobs.

Copyright © 2009, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was first published in the October 2009 issue of Home Business Magazine, and has not been reprinted elsewhere. If you would like to reprint it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.

But isn’t the purpose of business to make a profit? Aren’t businesses supposed to be focused on the bottom line? It appears that the very definition of these terms is changing. Increasingly, businesses are choosing to pursue what many are calling the “triple bottom line” of people, planet, and profits. They are judging their own success or failure not just on financial performance, but on how well they address social and environmental issues.

In pursuit of this triple bottom line, many businesses have adopted social responsibility practices. They work to reduce their carbon footprint, source their products from manufacturers that treat workers fairly, and commit to provide a higher quality of life for their employees. Others go beyond making their own operations socially responsible and contribute to the world around them. They donate a portion of profits to charities, engage in cause marketing partnerships, or sponsor volunteering programs for their employees.

But there is a new breed of enterprise making its appearance. An increasing number of businesses are not merely socially responsible; they have adopted a social mission at their core. For these enterprises, their reason for existence is not to turn a profit, it’s to make the world a better place. They have joined the ranks of social entrepreneurs.

Social entrepreneurship is an innovative blend of social action and entrepreneurial strategies. These new enterprises take a variety of forms, and come in all sizes. Some are organized as for-profit businesses dedicated to social change. Others are nonprofit organizations paying their own way with income-earning enterprises.

A third approach is used by professionals in private practice who offer their services pro bono to people and communities in need. And some social entrepreneurs are individuals working as full-time activists, educators, or organizers for their cause.

The uniqueness of the social entrepreneurship approach becomes more apparent when seeing it in action. Here are three typical models for social entrepreneurship ventures and examples of some of the people and organizations engaged in them.

Social Business - A for-profit business with a social agenda that holds a higher priority than maximizing profits. Its core product or service line is designed to directly address a social need. Also called “not just for profit (NJFP)” businesses, these enterprises use earned income to finance their good works.

Perhaps the most dramatic example of this model in practice is the Grameen Bank. Founded by Muhammad Yunus in 1983, Grameen Bank was established in order to provide microloans to the poorest of the poor in rural Bangladesh, without any collateral. As of December 2007, Grameen has over 7 million borrowers, and a 95% percent repayment rate. In 2006, Grameen earned a profit of $20 million U.S. It is the first and only business to ever be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Earned Income Nonprofit - A nonprofit organization addressing social problems that derives a substantial portion of its income from products and services it sells to those who can pay, rather than relying solely on grants and donations. Organizations like these and their initiatives are often referred to as “social enterprises.”

A thriving organization using this model is the Delancey Street Foundation. Founded by Mimi Silbert and John Maher in 1971 to help substance abusers, ex-convicts, and the homeless get back on their feet, Delancey Street accepts no government funding. Up to 65% of their funds come from businesses run by the clients themselves: a moving company, restaurants, a print shop, and more. The businesses serve as vocational schools, teaching marketable job skills to the clients. Over 14,000 people have turned their lives around through Delancey Street’s programs.

Pro Bono Practice - A professional services group of one or more lawyers, health practitioners, consultants, or other professionals designed primarily to serve people unable to pay. The group earns its income by charging full fees to other clients, selling additional products and services to those who can pay, or finding sponsors for their work. It’s a simple model that allows even the smallest business to have an impact.

For example, San Francisco chiropractor Dr. Juan Campos began in 1988 to make an annual trip to El Salvador to offer pro bono chiropractic services. He soon asked other chiropractors to join him, all of whom paid their own expenses for the trip from their private practice income. Dr. Campos’ Chiropractic Mission to El Salvador has continued for 19 years. In 2005, 17 chiropractors and 34 students provided chiropractic care to 24,000 Salvadorians. Every volunteer paid his or her own way to participate.

What these models have in common is that they apply business principles and entrepreneurial skills to address social issues. They use the spirit, creativity, and drive of motivated individuals to make a positive difference in the world.

Because social entrepreneurs cross traditional boundaries between the worlds of government, nonprofit, and business, there is no way — yet — to accurately count how many social entrepreneurship ventures there actually are. Charles Leadbeater, author of The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur, estimates that the social entrepreneurship sector employs around 40 million people globally, with 200 million more as volunteers.

Another reason it’s difficult to count social entrepreneurs is that a standard definition for the term has yet to emerge. In this article, the focus is on enterprises that earn income or are driven by business entrepreneurs. But many believe the scope of social entrepreneurship is even wider, encompassing any innovative venture with the aim of creating social change, regardless of its funding sources or business model.

Regardless of what truly defines social entrepreneurship, one telling indicator of its tremendous growth is the number of organizations and programs that have been established to serve social entrepreneurs.

Ashoka and Echoing Green sponsor fellowships for social entrepreneurs. The Skoll Foundation and Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship offer grants. Social entrepreneurs gather in associations such as Social Enterprise Alliance, Social Venture Network, and the International Network of Social Entrepreneurs. There are conferences like the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship and the Social Enterprise Summit.

At least thirty universities around the world have social entrepreneurship programs, including Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford. Fast Company magazine recognizes leading social entrepreneurs annually with its Social Capitalist Awards.

Social entrepreneurship is not just an appealing idea, it’s a growing, worldwide movement. In the words of Ashoka founder Bill Drayton, “Right now we have one of the rare instances where we can really impact the long-term architecture of half of society — for generations going forward. Every leading social entrepreneur is a role model. The result is that in community after community, each entrepreneur is encouraging someone, or several people, to become local changemakers. And that leads to everyone being a changemaker.”

Copyright © 2008, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was first published in the Feb 2008 issue of the Get Slightly Famous Webzine, and has not been printed elsewhere. If you would like to print it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.

An economic downturn may seem like the wrong time to start your own business, but layoffs and downsizing can create new opportunities for one breed of entrepreneur – the corporate consultant. Companies who lay off full-time workers still have many needs for specific skills, and frequently hire consultants on a short-term or project basis to fill these gaps. If you’ve been laid off yourself, working as a consultant can allow you to earn a good income while salaried jobs are scarce.

Working as a consultant can have many benefits. You may be able to earn more per hour than you did as an employee, or work mostly from home. You’ll have more independence, increased flexibility, and the possibility of more time with your family. If you’ve lost your job, consulting will keep you current in your field, provide you with useful contacts, and fill the hole in your resume if you pursue another salaried position in the future. A consulting contract may even turn into an offer for a full-time job, once an employer gets to know what you can do.

But not everyone is cut out to be a consultant. You’ll need to be a self-starter, able to work without a boss looking over your shoulder, and manage your time efficiently. You’ll have to learn and employ sales and marketing skills in order to land consulting contracts. And you will also need to present yourself to prospective clients as a skilled professional with a defined specialty, as opposed to just someone who needs a job.

How Consultants Work

As a consultant, your job will be to provide analysis and advice, expert guidance, and/or an extra pair of hands to your business clients. Corporate clients hire consultants by the hour, the day, or the project to help them solve problems, complete essential projects, or handle day-to-day responsibilities, such as when an important position is vacant.

Some consultants work at the highest levels of the company, analyzing a problem or situation and advising management on how to resolve it. Others work at the mid-management level, overseeing projects, implementing new initiatives, and advising internal staff. Consultants also work as specialists rather than advisors, executing projects and completing tasks in specialty areas such as information technology, marketing, or accounting.

In some situations, consultants work similarly to employees. They travel to the client’s site on a daily basis and get paid by the hour or day while they are there. Other consultants work at home or virtually, seeing their clients in person only rarely. Consultants who work off-site sometimes get paid by the project or result they produce instead of for the hours they put in.

While the roles that consultants can play and the nature of consulting contracts can vary widely, to be successful at landing clients, you’ll need to make some choices about what type of consultant you plan to be. New consultants often make the mistake of approaching prospective clients as generalists who can work in many different capacities. But clients prefer to hire people who specialize in providing the specific type of help they are looking for.

Defining Your Consulting Niche

Before you hang out your shingle, make an honest assessment of your professional skills and experience. What level and type of consulting assignments does your background qualify you for? Consider also what types of work you both enjoy and can do well. You’ll be much more convincing to prospective clients if you are enthusiastic about your specialty and can tell success stories about projects you have completed for your employers in the past.

The most successful consultants have a clearly defined market niche. This means that they have identified both a professional specialty and a target market. Your professional specialty is the specific area of expertise you plan to offer your clients – technical writing, for example. Your target market is the industry or field you plan to concentrate on – for example, health care. Your market niche is then the combination of the two – in this example, technical writing in the health care field.

Defining a market niche enables you to target the kind of clients you are most interested in working for, and allows you to position yourself as an attractive solution to their needs. Without a niche, marketing yourself as a consultant can be extremely challenging. You will find yourself pulled in far too many different directions, pursuing numerous unrelated leads and opportunities. And when you speak to a prospective client, it will be much harder to convince them you are the right person for their job.

Getting Started as a Consultant

Once you have chosen a consulting niche, begin by creating your business identity and some marketing collateral. You’ll need a business card and a marketing kit, and you may want to consider creating a website.

Your business card can be one of the most important marketing tools you’ll have. Make sure that your card includes a few words about your market niche or capabilities in addition to your contact information. You don’t necessarily need a business name or a job title, although some consultants like to position themselves as “president” or “principal” of their own consulting firm. If you’re a one-person shop, using just your name on your business card is fine.

In addition to business cards, you’ll need a marketing kit. Most consultants use a folder with inserted pages rather than a pre-printed brochure. This allows you to be flexible about what you include in your kit, and also to get started with very little expense. You can purchase folders at an office supply store and print the inserted pages on your home computer.

A typical marketing kit includes a professional bio or resume, a description of your services or capabilities, examples of the benefits or results you provide to your clients, and testimonials or endorsements from people familiar with your work. You might also include an article you have written, a fact sheet about your specialty, or a case study of a successful project.

If you are planning to enter the consulting field permanently, you’ll definitely want to create a website. But even if you believe you will only be consulting for a short while, you may wish to build a simple site. Having a description of your expertise available on the web will build your credibility with prospective clients and make you appear more professional. It will also allow you to take advantage of opportunities to spread the word about your availability online.

Deciding What to Charge

With your marketing collateral in hand, you’re almost ready to start seeking out potential clients. But first, figure out how much you need to charge. In most cases, clients will ask you to set your own price rather than offering you a pre-determined amount. Keep in mind that your consulting rates must pay not only for your time, but your overhead expenses, marketing costs, and more.

In addition to covering your business expenses, your fees should be high enough to cover the benefits you received as an employee which you will now have to pay for on your own. These might include health, disability, and life insurance coverage, a retirement plan, sick leave, vacation time, and one-half of your Social Security payments.

Also, don’t set your fees expecting to bill 40 hours per week. Over the course of a year, most corporate consultants bill an average of only 20 to 25 hours per week. You may be working for your clients only part-time, or have gaps between full-time contracts.

Once you know how much you need to charge to cover expenses and earn a comfortable living, compare your rates to what others in your niche and geographic area are charging. Surf the web looking for posted fees, or ask your professional association. Even if your financial needs are low, you shouldn’t charge significantly less than the competition.

If You’re Still Employed

If you still have a job, the most practical thing you can do before becoming unemployed is to line up your first client in advance. Failing that, set up your business as completely as possible before you leave. Buy business cards, develop a website and marketing kit, and buy or upgrade needed computer equipment or other tools of your trade.

If you are leaving your job with your first contract in hand, you should have three months living expenses put aside. If you don’t yet have a client, your emergency fund should hold enough for six months. Apply for all the credit you think you might need while you are still employed. If you’ve been thinking about refinancing your home, do it now. Investigate your health insurance options before leaving, too.

Marketing Your Consulting Business

When you’re first getting started, begin by telling everyone you know about your new business. Go through your address book and holiday card list. Review the rosters of associations you belong to and directories of companies where you’ve worked. Send a card, email, or note to these contacts letting them know what you’re doing now, and follow up with a phone call. Ask your existing associates to refer you to potential clients, prospective companies, and other useful contacts to expand your network.

Remember to emphasize your defined market niche in these conversations. Don’t make the mistake of saying, “I can do anything in the area of…” Maybe you can, but clients will want to know what you do best.

For a one-person consulting business, spending money on magazine, newspaper, or directory advertising, or on mass mailings, is almost always a mistake. You don’t have the budget to sustain an effective advertising campaign, so leave that to the big consulting firms. The best ways for independent consultants to get business are usually personal referrals, networking at live events and on the web, speaking to professional groups, and publishing articles about your specialty.

Look around your local area for events you can attend to meet potential clients and make new contacts in your field. Seek out meetings of professional and trade associations for your specialty or industry, business mixers sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, networking groups designed for professionals to meet each other, and lead exchange clubs such as Business Network International or LeTip.

When attending meetings like these, don’t try to sell yourself on the spot to everyone you talk to. Instead, make it your goal to meet people, have brief conversations on a topic you have in common, and collect their business cards. Then follow up the next day with anyone who seems like a useful contact in your search for clients.

The same events you might attend to meet people can also be good places for you to speak. Public speaking is an extremely effective form of marketing for many consultants, because it allows you to visibly demonstrate your expertise. Many association meetings and networking groups are always looking for speakers who can share useful information with their members, so it can be easier than you might think to get yourself booked as a presenter.

Will You Ever Go Back?

You may find that you enjoy consulting so much that you wouldn’t ever consider becoming an employee again. If you develop your sales and marketing skills enough to create a steady stream of clients, you may even decide to expand your one-person business into a consulting firm, hiring or subcontracting work to other professionals.

On the other hand, you may grow tired of always needing to sell yourself and managing a fluctuating income. Many consultants also suffer from feelings of isolation, or find themselves procrastinating endlessly. The prescription for these self-employment ills is to build some structure and support into your new lifestyle. Stick to a regular work schedule. Set goals and deadlines for yourself, and use a coach, mentor, or mastermind group to help you see things through.

Most importantly, try to spend time with other self-employed people to share ideas, experience, successes, and challenges. No one will understand what you’re going through like someone who has been there.

Sidebar: Success Tips for Consultants in an Economic Downturn

1. Network, network, network. When the market is tight, networking can save the day. The more people you talk to, the more likely you are to hear about an opening before someone else grabs it.

2. Seek out repeat business. It may be easier to get more business from existing clients who trust you than to convince new clients to take a risk. Watch for opportunities to propose new projects to the clients already in your stable.

3. Tell clients how you can save them money – or help them make it. Could your consulting services have the impact of reducing clients’ expenses in the long run, or of helping them increase sales? Now is the time to emphasize those possibilities in all your marketing efforts.

Copyright © 2008, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was first published in the August 2008 issue of Home Business Magazine, and has not been reprinted elsewhere. If you would like to reprint it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.

Supporting entrepreneurship in the developing world has long been considered one of the best approaches to “teach people to fish” and build sustainable local economies. In recent years, studies by the United Nations, World Bank, and others have shown that women entrepreneurs are more likely to contribute to community development than men, and are therefore better candidates for support programs. In the words of rock star/activist Bono: “Give a man a fish; he’ll eat for a day. Give a woman microcredit; she, her husband, her children, and her extended family will eat for a lifetime.”

Many programs have focused on providing access to capital, building needed infrastructure, and revising legal and regulatory requirements to make business ownership a more viable option. While these factors are critically important for entrepreneurs to thrive, there is one more issue that successful programs need to address: building an entrepreneurial culture.

Without a culture that supports entrepreneurship, women don’t perceive it as an option. Learning to fish requires something even more basic than bait, nets, or an adequate supply of fish. It requires that there be water. An entrepreneurial culture is the body of water that must exist in order for fishing to begin.

There are three dimensions to building a culture that supports women’s entrepreneurship in the developing world:

• Education and training
• Access to support and information networks
• Family and community support

When all three of these dimensions are addressed, entrepreneurs can flourish. But when any one of the elements is missing, the others alone may not be sufficient for women entrepreneurs to succeed.

Education and Training

Providing business education and entrepreneurial training is often the central component of economic development programs, and is essential to successful efforts. Many training programs focus on teaching women the technical skills needed to operate a specific business, such as manufacturing handcrafts, producing food or beauty products, or raising dairy or wool animals.

But in many areas of the developing world, women have received little or no formal education, and what schooling they have often focuses solely on literacy. Needed areas of added learning are typically basic business skills such as bookkeeping, budgeting, supervision, marketing, and sales, as well as understanding the legalities of starting a business, and obtaining localized information about access to markets and sourcing materials, inventory, or qualified workers.

The needed learning doesn’t end there. The European Commission 2004 report, How to Create an Entrepreneurial Culture, explains that education is not only necessary in business skills, but also in “the development of personal qualities that are relevant to entrepreneurship, such as creativity, spirit of initiative, risk-taking, and responsibility.”

Business skills can often be taught in a classroom or workshop setting, and through internships or apprenticeships, but skill-building in areas such as initiative, risk-taking, effective communication, and leadership qualities may require mentoring, experiential learning, and peer support, as described further below.

Access to Support and Information Networks

A key element for the success of any entrepreneur is the availability of mentorship and peer support. Studies by the U.S. National Commission on Entrepreneurship revealed that the most successful entrepreneurs are “embedded in a supportive system that includes networking opportunities with other entrepreneurs” and “links to mentors and role models.”

Mentors and entrepreneurial peers can provide general business advice, suggest specific solutions, make connections to influential people, recommend resources, and share best practices. Role models can inspire by example, encouraging prospective entrepreneurs to follow what may be a non-traditional path.

Mentorship and support networks can be significant for men and women alike, but evidence suggests that for women, they are critical. According to Joan Steitz, a UNESCO laureate at Yale University, “We cannot expect to capture the interest and talents of girls and women… unless they can view their own participation as possible.” Women often need to see other women operating businesses before they will choose entrepreneurship for themselves.

A fundamental component of successful women’s entrepreneurship programs is that they provide access to mentors, peers, and role models through structured group activities, formal mentoring partnerships, or informal networks of students, graduates, and other women in the community.

The most effective programs offer regular gatherings where participants can share success stories, seek solutions to common problems, reinforce newly-learned skills, and experience a sense of partnership and camaraderie. These meetings continue well beyond the initial training period, to provide ongoing support as the women’s enterprises grow.

To help women improve the personal skills that bolster entrepreneurship — risk tolerance, self-confidence, and powerful communication, for example — support groups like these can be a more effective method of skill-building than classroom education. With the continuing encouragement and example of their peers, women become more confident about their enterprises, increase their self-esteem, learn to lead others, and are better able to withstand opposition and setbacks.

Family and Community Support

The final dimension to building an entrepreneurial culture can be the most difficult to achieve. If family members and community leaders oppose women launching business ventures, this can be a persistent barrier. Values, attitudes, and cultural attributes in many areas of the world can prevent policymakers from taking the necessary legal or financial action to support women entrepreneurs. Opposition from husbands, fathers, in-laws, and religious and political leaders can discourage women from choosing entrepreneurship or sabotage their efforts.

One approach to building support for women’s entrepreneurship is to provide evidence to community leaders of how other communities have benefitted. In areas where women have been able to launch successful entrepreneurial ventures, communities see a dramatic improvement in living standards. Not only are the women’s families better fed and housed, but their children receive more education, and the family’s health improves. When political and religious leaders learn of these tangible potential benefits, they can often be persuaded to change their views.

Another effective strategy is to educate family members. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, overcame initial opposition to offering microcredit to Bangladeshi women in this way: “We started meeting with the husbands and explaining the program in a way where they could see it would be beneficial to their family. And we made sure to meet with husbands and wives together so everyone understood what was expected.”

A third successful avenue is to encourage women to speak out for themselves. Bolstered by seeing other women’s success and participating in peer support groups, Yunus says, “Women started confronting the religious people. They said, ‘You think taking money from Grameen Bank is a bad idea? Okay, we won’t take any more — if you give the money yourself… And of course the religious advocates said, ‘No, no, we can’t give you money.’ So that was the end of that.”

Building an Entrepreneurial Culture

To teach women entrepreneurs how to fish, it’s clear that simply handing out fishing equipment isn’t enough, nor is it effective to teach basic fishing skills and then walk away. Entrepreneurs need the ongoing guidance of experienced fisherwomen, as well as the companionship of other novices. They also need to live near a body of water where fishing is not only permitted, but encouraged.

Creating this environment is the critical task of entrepreneurial development programs. But many programs have focused only on skills training, neglecting the social support elements that enable entrepreneurs to thrive. According to the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, the essential attributes of an entrepreneurial support organization are:

• They place primary focus on entrepreneurs rather than the enterprises they create.
• They build a support system that nurtures entrepreneurs during the idea phase, provides the resources and tools needed to create new enterprises, and guides the entrepreneur through the process of growing a business.
• They contribute to the creation of entrepreneurial environments where entrepreneurship is supported in both the public and private sectors.

The hallmark of a successful program is that it offers support to the entrepreneur instead of just to her business. Program elements such as peer support groups, mentoring partnerships, and community outreach provide a nurturing social environment for fledgling entrepreneurs.

Supporting all three dimensions of entrepreneurial culture — education and training, access to support and information networks, and family and community support — should be an essential goal of every entrepreneurial development program. With this three-faceted approach, advocates of women’s entrepreneurship will create an environment where women business owners can thrive.

Copyright © 2007, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was written for the Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs project of FLOW: Liberating the Entrepreneurial Spirit for Good, and has not been published elsewhere. If you would like to print it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.